They forgot to update Clark's first law .......

"When a distinguished but elderly scientist [/engineer/manager] states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong."

Thank you Steve and Fats

@FatsBrannigan Re: A serious technical/usability question .....

Let me try to understand this by asking a different question: If an iPhone 4S/5 user switched to using a Galaxy S3 (say) and got over the hurdle of setting up a Google account and installing needed apps, what would they miss about the iPhone that they could not work around?

To save you the effort of a detailed reply, can you recommend any particular iPhone user website/guide?

@Dave 126 re. Little legs so it can walk around your desk

A serious technical/usability question .....

Can anyone tell me if the iPhone5 is capable of doing something noticeable better or in a usefully different way from high-end Android phones? Please note that using any of Apple's walled garden facilities does not count, nor does using an esoteric app that has only been developed for the iPhone.

I'm asking as someone who's had an HTC Incredible for 18 months and is quite satisfied with it, but is now considering an upgrade (maybe HTC One S, maybe not .....) I prefer to buy my phone unlocked and have a SIM only contract.

Poor quality pics

The pictures of the 'blue' area, in the linked article appear to be overexposed and almost white (or is it my screen?). I was promised a blue arse and I feel disappointed.

P.S. I can't think why anyone would be offended by those pictures. It's an animal in it's natural state. If there is anyone who's unaware that male primates have external genitalia, then it's about time they learned.

Re: Expensive No Doubt

Many possible solutions

I have an old USB memory stick that has a 'secure' hidden partition that is manipulated by a supplier utility. This reports itself as a separate drive when plugged in. It's definitely possible, all that's needed is for everybody to agree to a standard. The possession of patents in this area may be a sticking point.

Frozen meal packaging tells you the instructions and heating times for various powers of microwave oven. I can't think what other information you'd need in a kitchen or why you'd want to spend much time there.

Use disposable e-mail addresses and type in a false phone number. (I realise that the false phone number may be regarded as anti-social, since there will probably be a victim, but you can give the phone number of another car insurance company.)

"Personal cloud storage hardware (aka external hard drives)"

Good typing and mousing experiences

The Asus Transformer Pad has a full size USB connector at the back of its keyboard base, which will drive wired mice and wireless mice (at least the two particular species of mice which I possess). It will also drive a USB keyboard, which is useful if you want to do lots of typing and prefer a full sized 'proper' keyboard, as I'm doing right now.

I'd be happy to have a tablet (screen only) device that had two USB connectors (probably small or micro size) so that I could use a 'proper' keyboard and mouse (via connector adaptors) when I felt the need to do so. Has any tablet manufacturer done that?

"... effective and appropriate punishments."

Chop their fingers off !

(I've recently been getting a slew of mobile spam texts and also some phishing attempts on an e-mail address that I've managed to share only with 'trustworthy' organisations for ten years now. I'm not in a good mood.)

Basic misunderstanding

"She also said, ....... that the fondleslab-deprived man was allowed to beam them wherever he wished in pursuit of his property."

It seems the magistrate thought that the owner was shining 'searcher rays' into private property in an attempt to find his stolen property. When the people in a technological society who sit in judgement of us are this ignorant, it worries me.

Solving real-world 'problems' .....

" ...wood was a little too conductive and the 3mm gap between the panels wasn't isolating enough - a wider gap works,... "

Try putting a 1Megohm (or 2M or 500k) resistor in series with the contact wires. That would enable you to have a smaller wood gap while still being able to detect a finger press. Go on, do some real engineering.

Re: Would it be churlish and overly pedantic of me...

WTF?

"Keeping a list of directors, actors and subjects of interest for automatic recording is also a TiVo-owned concept,"

How the heck can TiVo 'own' a concept and have patents on it?? The concept of advice based on known previous likings has been implemented by family, friends and colleagues for ages, ever since the mass production of novels.

Re: Astrophysics questions....

Thank you Dave; I should have had the sense to try that first (and it made my brain hurt too). I'm extending my imagination to cover gaseous particle interactions that take place over many millions of miles with time intervals of days/months/years.

Astrophysics questions....

The article notes a rapidly escalating amount of galactic cosmic rays as Voyager goes through the 'heliosheath'. Are these 'rays' slowed and stopped or deflected by the effects of Sol? If so, is it a magnetic, electrostatic or electromagnetic effect? I can't imagine it would be particle interaction since everything out there is mostly empty space and I can't see how photons coming in would be affected at all.

Is it a boiling maelstrom of energetic 'stuff' on the outside of the heliosheath region or is this an increase which is only noticeable by sensitive instruments?

Reasons....

Is the tussle over standards to do with firmly held technical beliefs about the superiority of one over the other; or is it to do with owning patents that are essential to a particular standard? Just wondering.

Re: FUP

On their cable internet service (with 1GB a day 'fair use' limit), they step the speed down to 1/2, 1/4, 1/8 of maximum as you pass various trigger points in the 1-2GB range. I'd be very surprised if they didn't do something similar with their mobile service.

@AC 08:46 Re: Science and allergies

According to one theory I read about (on the internet, so it must be true), there was a large supply of unwanted peanut oil as a by-product of peanut paste manufacture. This was incorporated into baby oil type products (since it's natural and we all know that natural products are good for you) and applied to the delicate skin of many, many babies and young children. The theory is that some component of the peanut oil was absorbed through the skin and resulted in sensitisation to that component, leading to a later allergy towards peanuts.

Can anyone explain?

From a purely technical and practical point of view, I can't understand why taxi drivers and similar people would need private radio in preference to the standard mobile phone service. A dedicated mobile phone (voice and text only) could easily be made to dock/integrate into the car's power and audio system and a 'specialist' model could be made that can automatically accept calls so that the driver doesn't need to fiddle with it when his controller calls him.

I'm not saying they should be denied the use of private radio, I'm just wondering why they want it in preference to standard mobile voice service. Is it a running cost and/or privacy thing?

Re: Patent

You can't keep something secret and then jump up years later and say, "I invented that, so you can't patent it."

An invention has to be published (to make it prior art) or patented (to give it patent protection) to prevent a later developer from claiming patent rights. Any spooks have obviously done neither of those things.

Re: "Bobby-trapped" web page?

Wildfire still going...

I've still got my old Wildfire (with AMOLED screen and camera pushbutton) and I run it on PAYG as a 'standby' phone in case anything goes wrong with its replacement, the Incredible-S. It does feel a bit sluggish and look grainy compared to the Incredible, but it still does everything I would need it to do (but it's not very good for reading e-books and watching videos).

I can't think why I'd want to upgrade from the Incredible, since the 4" screen is the maximum size that I feel comfortable with using as a phone and carrying in my jacket pocket. Unless they can make smartphones do something amazing and 'must have', I see no reason why anyone with a recent smartphone would really need to upgrade.

"...stream music over-the-air directly to audio equipment - without the need for Wi-Fi."

For a moment there, I thought Apple had patented the modulating of a radio carrier signal with audio information, so that it could cover a wide area of reception from a single transmitting source. (Maybe they will try that.)

Shoe ... other foot

"US industry representatives have raised concerns that Chinese development of TCM is motivated by the desire to reduce royalties for patents embedded in TCG technology standards ..."

Of course it is. Why should China pay for western tech licenses when they can develop their own standard for a massive internal market? (Just like the china-specific mobile phone standard widely used there.)

"... and that it will negatively affect interoperability and globally integrated supply chains."

No problem; everybody else can use the chinese standard and buy a license from them. Oh, ... wait a minute.